Yogi Bear

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake, Anna Faris
Directed by: Eric Brevig (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”)
Written by: Jeffrey Ventimilia (“Tooth Fairy”), Joshua Sternin (“Tooth Fairy”), Brad Copeland (“Wild Hogs”)

As beloved as William Hanna-Joseph Barbera’s TV cartoons have been since the late ’50s, their recent resurrection as live-action/CGI-animated feature films has been hugely disappointing. Somewhat inspired casting choices like John Goodman as Fred Flintstone in “The Flintstones” and Matthew Lillard as Shaggy in “Scooby-Doo” (zoinks!) were spot on, but the films themselves were a firm reminder that without a competent script, nostalgia can only get you so far.

With “Yogi Bear,” another of these bizarre live-action/CGI hybrids, Warner Bros. aims their attention at a new generation of indiscriminate four-year-olds unfamiliar with the short-lived animated spinoff of the early ’60s. While the simplistically-drawn “Yogi Bear Show” only aired 35 episodes over two seasons, it’s considered a classic in the Hanna-Barbera canon.

In the new film version, which is the first picture not to be produced in some capacity by either creator (Hanna passed away in 2001, Barbera in 2006), the basic premise of the original cartoon remains the same. Yogi (Dan Aykroyd doing his best impression of comedian Rodney Dangerfield), along with his faithful sidekick Boo Boo (Justin Timberlake, whose take on the pudgy little bear is about as wonderfully wussy as his role in “The Social Network”), spend their time in Jellystone National Park evading Ranger Smith (Tom Cavanagh) and stealing campers’ “pic-a-nic” baskets. The troublemaking duo becomes the park’s main attraction when a filmmaker (Anna Faris) chooses them as the subject for her next nature documentary.

Jellystone can use all the publicity it can muster. The town is going bankrupt and a corrupt mayor (Andrew Daly) wants to sell the park to a company planning to cut down all the trees (cue an unoriginal green message and a plot centered on zoning regulations). Penned by three screenwriters, whose less-than-stellar credits include “Tooth Fairy” and “Wild Hogs,” and directed by longtime special-effects whiz Eric Brevig (“Total Recall”), “Yogi Bear” wears thin even at a merciful 82 minutes, which includes an unfunny, outdated dance sequence to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.”

Yogi can still refer to himself as “smarter than the average bear” if he’d like, but his movie hardly supports the self-description. Instead, “Yogi Bear” joins other brainless live-action/CGI combos of the last decade like “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” and “Garfield” to become yet another forgettable addition to the dullest of kid-friendly fare.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris and James Caan
Directed by: Phil Lord (debut) and Chris Miller (debut)
Written by: Phil Lord (“Extreme Movie”) and Chris Miller (“Extreme Movie”)

We might not get as hungry as we would if we were watching “Julie & Julia” or any number of culinary shows on the Food Network, but the new film “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is an amusing romp through the refrigerator that proves Pixar isn’t the only animation studio cooking up winners.

While it’s going to be hard to one-up Pixar’s “Up” as this year’s best animation, “Meatballs” gets as close to doing it than any other computer-generated family film has in the last nine months. Based on the children’s book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, the story follows Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), small-town aspiring inventor whose weird contraptions aren’t what someone would consider ingenious (spray-on shoes sound nifty if there were a way to take them off your feet).

With his father (James Caan) gently encouraging him to give up on his childhood dream and help him work at their family-owed bait and tackle shop instead, Flint’s future as an inventor rides on whether or not he can get his newest gadget – a machine that morphs water into food – to work properly without creating a catastrophe.

But when his experiment is accidentally launched into sky and causes it to start raining cheeseburgers, cherry pie, and a whole bunch of other fatty foods (can’t a guy get some lettuce wraps around here?), the once-economically unfortunate town sees Flint’s mistake as an opportunity to make money on “food tourism.”

However, when the machine goes haywire and stars pouring down food in massive proportions, Flint and his pet monkey (he’s strapped into a translation device like the dogs in “Up” and blurts out random words) must figure a way to stop the “techno food” from falling before the weather gets out of control (spaghetti tornadoes whooshing by in 3-D are such a delight!).

After seeing “Meatballs,” parents may want to keep a closer eye at the dinner table for those children who want to reenact the food showers, but that shouldn’t stop them from spending an afternoon savoring this visually scrumptious CG feature from Sony Pictures Animation. Just remember that saying “clear your plate” might mean something completely different once out of the theater.

Filled with wackiness and witty jokes, “Meatballs” is a riot that doesn’t pander to kids or over-think its humor for adults in the audience. The characters – including Anna Faris as a perky weather girl and Mr. T as a burly lawman – are written with a sharpness that is difficult to capture in a film with essentially two demographics. But where other animations have tilted in favor of one over the other, “Meatballs” serves up a nice balanced meal everyone will enjoy – even if the chicken drumsticks are as big as Mack trucks.

Observe and Report

Starring: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta
Directed by: Jody Hill (“The Foot Fist Way”)
Written by: Jody Hill (“The Foot Fist Way”)

Take it for what it’s worth: the new comedy “Observe and Report” is the best mall-cop movie of the year.

That doesn’t say much since the only other film under that category this year is the terrible “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” where we were able to witness actor Kevin James hamming it up on a Segway against skateboarding ninja wannabes. After that, who wouldn’t want another mall-cop movie, right?

In “Observe and Report,” Seth Rogen is our anti-hero and he’s got a lot more punch behind the silver badge he wears so proudly than James has in his porn-stache. As Ronny Barnhart, a bipolar security cop working at the local mall, serving and protecting the establishment’s patrons is everything he cares about.

His pride takes a hit, however, when a streaker in the mall starts showing off what’s under his trenchcoat to shoppers. When the pervert, as he is referred to in the movie, flashes himself to Ronnie’s love interest, cosmetics girl Brandi (Anna Faris), the shriveled-up exhibitionist becomes Ronnie’s only link to her life and therefore the only way he can win her over.

With that, Ronnie sets forth to catch the perv with help from his curly sidekick Dennis (Michel Peña) and a few other uninteresting secondary characters that rely on their physical awkwardness and not their actual personality to make them memorable additions to a sometimes hilarious script. Ray Liotta (“Wild Hogs”) as a city police officer befuddled by Ronnie’s acute stupidity is the only saving grace in this aspect.

While the narrative pushes the breaks one too many times, Rogen, Liotta, and especially actress Celia Weston (“In the Bedroom”) as Ronnie’s drunk mother, are enough reasons to tip the scales of justice toward favorable. And if you do find yourself less than entertained by another mall-cop movie in 2009, stay for the third act, which pushes the humor onto a level very few comedies dare to tread.

The House Bunny

Starring: Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma Stone
Directed by: Fred Wolf (“Strange Wilderness”)
Written by: Karen McCullah Lutz (“She’s the Man”) and Kirsten Smith (“Legally Blonde”)

With drama happening in the real life Playboy Mansion (if you haven’t heard, word on the street is Hugh Hefner is moving in another bunny and his three girlfriends aren’t very happy about it), it’s great publicity for the new comedy “The House Bunny,” which is being released by Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison.

I bring this up because Happy Madison’s track record isn’t one to boast. “Strange Wilderness,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” and “The Benchwarmers” are just a sample of the refuse the studio has put out in the last two years. In “The House Bunny,” not much has evolved except for the addition of more T&A. And even then, the T&A we are talking about is attached to actress Anna Faris, who may look like a Playboy model, but can’t carry a film on her own – at least not with this material.

The story begins by introducing us to Shelley Darlingson (Faris). Once an unwanted orphan, Shelley grows up, gets boobs, and ends up living in the Playboy Mansion along with Hugh Hefner and the other Girls Next Door. Shelley isn’t quite centerfold material, although she has posed in a nude pictorial called Girls with GEDs, but she is happy just being part of the gang of blonde bombshells.

But when Shelley is booted out of the mansion for supposedly being too old (she just turned 27, which is “59 in Bunny years”), she turns to sorority life and tries to become a house mother for a group of unpopular and socially-awkward college girls, whose Zeta Alpha Zeta house is going to be taken from them if they can’t come up with 30 new pledges before the start of the semester.

Cue the predictable and formulaic montages beginning with Shelley teaching the girls about style, how to apply makeup, and how to get guys to notice them. The so-called ugly girls are actually pretty ones hiding behind thick glasses, baggy clothes, and/or any other number of distracting props a la Rachel Leigh Cook in “She’s All That” or Lindsay Lohan in “Mean Girls.” The girls return the favor in a medley of ridiculous scenes by showing Shelly that while boys might be into looks, some, like Oliver (Colin Hanks), a guy who Shelly is crushing on, like girls with a little smarts, too.

It’s no surprise that writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith of “Legally Blonde are behind this cinematic travesty. While “Blonde” had its moments, “Bunny” is a bad rehash of the same story this time with a bit more skin. In it’s basic form, it’s a 97-minute long blonde joke without a noteworthy punch line.